Citations
- 200 F. Supp. 3d 660
Full opinion text
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Thomas B. Russell, Senior Judge
The Clift family filed this action against RDP Company and Lafarge West, Inc., alleging various claims arising out of, or connected to, a mineral rights lease dating back to 1977. With discovery at an end, the Clifts, RDP Company, and Lafarge West filed competing motions for summary judgment. (To the extent RDP Company prevails, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., whom RDP Company impleaded, seeks summary judgment too.)‘ For reasons discussed at length below, the Clifts’ Motion for Summary Judgment, R. 84, is DENIED, 'and RDP Company’s Motion for Summary Judgment, R. 83, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgment, R. 85, and Lafarge West, Inc.’s Motion for Summary Judgment, R. 86, are GRANTED.
I.
A.
1.
Between 1967 and 1977, Clifton,,Sr. and Margaret Clift executed three leases granting Fredonia Valley Quarries, Inc. the right to quarry “all merchantable limestone rock and other kindred substances in,, under and upon” a seventy-two acre tract of , land in Caldwell County, Kentucky. R. 84-2 at 1 (1967 Lease); R. 84-3 at 1 (1972 Lease); R. 84-4 at 1 (1977 Lease).
The 1967 Lease. Clifton, Sr. and Margaret signed the first lease on August 9, 1967. See R. 84-2 at 4. In detail, the lease granted to Fredonia Valley Quarries
the right and license to enter upon the premises hereinbefore described at all times and to use so much of the surface thereof as may be reasonably, necessary in searching for and [exploring] for limestone rock and other kindred substances and in determining the thickness thereof, and for the establishment of Quarries and Quarry buildings and for the deposit of waste material from such Quarries; also the right and license to quarry and remove said limestone and/or kindred substances from said premises together with the rights, privileges, license and easements necessary, incidental or in any manner appertaining to the proper prosecution of the business of quarrying and removing said limestone and other kindred substances; also the right to occupy so much of the surface of said premises as may be reasonably necessary for storing of said limestone rock or other kindred substances, and depositing the refuse therefrom, and the right to erect on said premises such buildings, structures and fixtures as may be necessary or incidental to the proper prosecution of said business of quarrying.
Id. at 1-2. The lease reserved to the Clifts the “right to remove all timber ... from [the] premises thirty days before quarry operations” commenced. Id. at 2.
In exchange, the lease guaranteed the Clifts a minimum payment of $50.00 per month without regard to whether Fredonia Valley Quarries quarried the Clifts’ tract. Id. Once Fredonia Valley Quarries began excavating the Clifts’ land, though, it guaranteed a minimum royalty of $500.00 for each acre mined or stripped, or on which it disposed of waste, to be paid from a production royalty. Id. at 3. The production royalty consisted of 5